Maier Secures World Cup Title

March 11, 2000

HINTERSTODER, Austria (AP) _ Christian Mayer of Austria won a men’s World Cup giant slalom today, while compatriot Hermann Maier secured the overall World Cup victory for the second time in three years.

Mayer covered the Baerenalm Nord course in an aggregate time of 2 minutes, 46.17 seconds for his second consecutive victory in the giant slalom.

Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein finished second in 2:47.08, and Maier was third with a time of 2:47.46.

Maier clinched the World Cup title for the second time in his career. With a total of 1820 points, he leads Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt atop the overall standings by 420 points and can’t be overtaken in the World Cup finals in Bormio next week.

Maier has also clinched the super-G title, and has a chance to win the overall downhill and giant slalom standings.

``It’s great to win the overall World Cup again,″ the jubilant Maier said. ``It took a lot of work, though.″

Putting together two perfect heats, Mayer was in the lead at all intermediate times. It was his sixth career World Cup victory.